B-to-B Marketing: Four Quick Tips

* Margin is king, and you must know the king: Track by category, item, catalog mix and maintain both margin dollars and percentages. Because order volume is a balancing act, more volume seldom replaces less; go a for higher margin percentage and higher order volume.

* Develop winning new products: Maintain a culture of innovation and be recognized for it; promote new, improved, exclusive or hard-to-find products. New products should be your most profitable for at least the first year “until somebody knocks you off,” he said. New product sales should amount to greater than 20 percent of your overall product line­--excluding line extensions.